(Author´s note: Just a word... for you who read Claymore, you will realize what the surprise in this chapter is...
...and I hope you will find it pleasant.
Enjoy...
Oh... by the way, I´m looking for a beta reader, if anyone is interested, send me a (Pm).)
Chapter 51
"Raise a Dust"
Close to a ruined village within the deserts of Mucha, two assigned guards kept watch.
A small abandoned village lingered among the desert sand with their empty houses that now hosted the Apex Vipers that made it their temporary base.
True to their name, the southern branch of the Apex could be seen as raiders of Mucha. They specialized in fast raids of caravans and small villages that didn´t take more than an hour between the attack and the departure. They had specialized themselves in the arts of ambush, waited unseen until the moment to strike arrive and inflict a lethal maneuver.
Considering that they usually organized attacks in the deserts, they had to wear masks for their protection, sculpted pieces of sandstone with narrow gaps for the eyes that kept the Gut worm´s stomach acid and sand from their eyes, a necessity in Mucha, and also cooled down their faces while they protected them from the sun.
The branch of slave trade that the Apex Vipers monitored involved basically adult women. They usually could be sold as either "toys" to the rich and corrupt landlords in Tolaine or servants for the somewhat uncorrupted noblemen.
If the women were young then they would end up as "toys". If they were too old, then they either became servants or slaves, but there´s no difference between those two words. To be a "toy" could be considered far worse than being a servant.
So they preferred to hunt the young ones, due to the large sums of gold they could get for them.
The two guards stood by the village entrance and kept a watching eye across the pale desert, illuminated in the eerie pale moonlight. There were so many things that they needed to stay alert for, poisonous animals, gut worms, yoma, demons and worse things.
But there was one thing in the South that was nearly infamous amongst the Apex and posed a severe threat to the Apex Vipers. A demon so fearsome that had such appetite that it could devour an outpost worth of men in an instant. A demon that Waltz, the exaggerating, probably drunk, storyteller of the Northern branch would know about, since he was one of the few Apex members that had to keep track on the demons of this world for the Apex´s safety.
The main demon of Mucha that he referred to as…
..."The Kneeling Woman".
There was just little to tell from the very rare occasions someone actually managed to survive an encounter with her. These survivors in question could only be described as complete cowards who fled at the first sign of trouble, but they could provide vague amounts of information when interrogated by the boss of the Apex Vipers.
"The Kneeling Woman", dressed in a ragged gown, most likely stolen from a caravan. From the first appearance, it seemed like she kneeled in the sand and moved forward despite this. Some say they could see two sand dunes follow her by her sides. One witness who didn´t flee immediately had said that the sands moved around her, like a lizard buried beneath it. All witnesses could confirm her identity as a demon, since she had those "Cursed golden eyes and sharply pointy ears of a demon". Some said she also had long hair as to cover them up, but since all witnesses only seen her at a distance, they couldn´t be certain. Sufficient to say, not many had survived to tell the vague tell, but it had been enough information to give her that nickname.
The two guards remained in place as one of them began to discuss with the other.
"Did you hear what happened with Pedre?"
The other guard replied without delay, while he watched the desert´s treacherous dunes.
"Yeah, I heard about it… that idiot tried to have a good time with one of the slaves again. And apparently nearly killed her as well…"
"But did you heard about what he did after he accidently killed her?"
"Yes… that idiot used that thing our employers gave us. Idiot… like he thought he could cover up his tracks like that…"
"It healed the woman though…"
The other guard snorted in dislike.
"Well, he should be given some credit for the idea, but he deserved to have his arm ripped off for his stupidity…"
"You think so as well?"
"I mean… that idiot tried to have his way with her again…after that he used those tears on her…"
"Idiot… I´m surprised that he didn´t lose his head for that…"
"But it´s scary isn´t it? I mean, we didn´t even knew what that potion or whatever it was did until that moment. They said "unimaginable power", but I never imagined that it would turn someone into…into that!"
They both shivered in fright over what that slave had turned into.
"It took fifteen of us to restrain that thing…"
"Tell me about it, at least it didn´t get a chunk of you in the process…"
One of the bandit guards then rubbed his right forearm that had a bandage beneath the thin clothes. It hadn´t been pleasant.
The other bandit guard remarked.
"I hope those messengers arrive soon, they have a lot to compensate for…"
"Do you really think that they even will show up?"
"They better do so… because I won´t drink that thing unless I know there´s an antidote for it. I would rather prefer to not lose my mind like that."
"So what are we supposed to look for?"
The other, unharmed, bandit began to turn his head around like he had heard something faint in the air.
"That´s right… you´re new to guard duty aren´t you?"
"My first time here…"
"Well, I guess I can tell you about them. There´s always two of them, a guy and a chick. The guy from back then was a head taller than the chick and had a vest. The chick in question dressed up just like one of those damn silver witches, only in a darker version of it. You should have seen the sword though…"
"So I should look for something that matches that description?"
"Well, something similar at least, but the main detail is that they are odd…"
"Like those two?"
The guard pointed toward the desert and the other bandit turned his head in that direction.
Two people and a flock of vultures which followed their tracks from high above moved over the dunes towards them.
Two figures approached the outpost, illuminated by the moonlight, and with pretty distinctive appearances.
One of them donned a quite colorful robe in an emerald color that made it shimmer from the moonlight. The robe hanged around the shoulders and revealed the attire this figure wore beneath it, like to show off.
The first thing that could be determined was the fact that this one was a woman.
She had pretty elegant body that only could be described as appealing for the eye. She wore a dress that appeared misplaced in the desert, but would fit more in the wardrobe of a duchess instead. The parts of it that covered her upper body glimmered in a sapphire blue cloth, formfitting as well. Her dress had a much darker sapphire color with two sea emerald parts around her waist like two sharp petals around it. She also wore a small belt around the thin waistline to separate the two colors apart and blended in with the appealing appearance so it appeared unnoticeable.
The woman couldn´t be more than twenty years old, with her appearance in consideration.
Her dress also had detachable long sleeves that could be removed by her shoulders. These sleeves had the same color as the emerald one around her waist, but only a little brighter. These also went over her hands and hid them within when she held her arms down.
The woman had appealing facial features in a neat little face frame, at least from what the bandits could see above the sun feather she held to cover her face from the nose bridge and down.
The sun feather was of the kind that could be folded with a move of her hand and composed of magnificent tail feathers from some kind of bird the bandits had never seen before. Each and every one reached a length of thirty centimeters, with a shimmering ruby color in the middle part and a mixture of both bluish topaz and black opal at the top. The end of these feathers also had a single large circular mark that resembled eyes on a butterfly. And they looked sharp as well…
While she waved with this thing they could also see that her fingernails where long and sharpened like tiny knifes, painted dark red.
Her long hair, in a dark blond color, reached beyond her shoulders and lay flat on her head.
Her thin eyebrows frowned at the sight of the two bandits and her half-open, silver tinted blue eyes, narrowed above her obscuring sun feather.
And as a last detail, she wore a small hair decoration by her left ear, a silver plated hairpin with a small diamond engraved in the needle head.
It only made her appear more appealing.
But personality wise, she could be considered a nightmare that made her a special case amongst her own peers.
Her companion could be considered as the opposite side of her.
To tell what gender it had would prove difficult, since it wore a facial mask of metal that prevented identification.
That she carried a feminine air around her behavior was the only way to tell what she was.
She was dressed in a dark sturdy leather armor that would be painful to wear in the infernal heat of Mucha. The right arm of this armor had a sturdy piece of leather and metal, similar to a witch´s wrist protector, but much darker in color. She also wore a dark bodysuit beneath the leather armor that hid her body in the dark. A pair of too large pants covered and obscured her slim legs, a pair that needed to be tied up with a rope around the waist and tucked into the bronze boots.
How this one managed to cross the desert in these clothes could be considered a miracle.
Her protective visor covered his face and made identification impossible along with the helmet she wore. It had a rounded shape that resembled a bird of prey, a falcon to be more precise, with its beak half open in a shriek. The knight´s human face remained hidden in shadows.
The knight also wore a white dickey with dark edges and a black symbol on it…
…and this knight was the only one who could endure her companion´s eccentric behavior.
The woman turned to her companion while she waved with her sun feather in slight dislike.
"Vega…Can you please get rid of those vultures? They´re ugly…"
Vega turned at her and replied with a voice that got distorted in her helmet into an indistinctive tone, like if someone tried to talk in a church bell.
"They can´t exactly help it and they´re not of your concern…So don´t wave with that thing in my direction Vanity! I don´t want to get another scratch on my helmet…"
The woman, Vanity, kept her sun feather in front of her face to obscure it, all to cover the imaginary smell. Vega on other hand put a hand within the helmet and made a call up to them.
One of the vultures descended and she raised her enforced right arm to allow it to land. Its dark talons clenched around the padded gauntlet´s wrist-guard and it gazed around.
The vulture of Mucha, also called Skull-Vulture could be described as the scavenger of the sky. A relatively small bird of prey with a half meter in height and long wings with white feathers that covered its body. Due to the warm climate in Mucha, they had developed this bright colored plumage to endure the heat. The head and neck lacked feathers due to the vulture´s habit of devour internal organs from carcasses. The reason of its name could be due to their appearance from below. They had one black spot on the underside of each wing that along with their white plumage, made them appear like human skulls. They also had black feet with a set of fearsome talons to rip skin apart. It also possessed a pair of pitch black eyes that only made it appear more vicious.
They lived on anything that ended up on all four in the desert and sometimes their prey didn´t even had to be on the verge to death for an attack by them.
Vanity turned her head away from it as Vega began to stroke it beneath its bended beak.
"…and besides, take a look at it, it´s not that ugly…"
Vanity turned her head just a little in profile towards Vega and spent five seconds on the vulture. She then turned her head away from it with a face expression of distain.
"Well… I think you have a point… considering that men are even uglier."
A deep tired sigh from Vega, who spent another couple of moments with the bird before it took off again.
Vanity asked as she moved forward.
"Why are we supposed to be here anyway? Isn´t this Armand and Nina´s job?"
Vega turned her head upwards to follow the circulation of the vultures.
"Apparently those two had to recover. Armand lost his entire lower body along with his arms and his nose in that accident. And considering that he was an offensive type awakened, regeneration of that much damage would be impossible on his own…"
"Suits him right… He bragged on about his so called "Impenetrable" skin to such degree that I was about to smack him in the head with my sun feather…"
"What stopped you?"
"Who do you think?"
"Nina, uh?"
Vanity snorted in mockery.
"Yes, I don´t understand why she cares so much about him…"
"You know that Armand is her star pupil… also that we aren´t allowed to lay a hand on him…"
"True."
"…and besides, the only one that´s allowed to beat him up for a failure is her. So Armand had that coming."
Vanity chuckled in a pleased manner behind her sun feather before she turned displeased once more.
"Then why are we supposed to deal with Mucha? Or for that matter, why am I supposed to deal with Mucha? It´s only populated with ugly men and disgusting yoma…"
"Because were the ones closest to the destination, the others have important missions as well…"
"Nonsense! I bet that the others just sent me out here just for fun…"
Vega sighed in a tiresome manner since Vanity could be a pain sometimes.
"Vanity, Messire handpicked us for this mission…"
Vanity stopped her chant of complaints and remained silent for a moment. Then she spoke with a tolerable tone of acceptance.
"Well… if he handpicked me for this… then that means he wanted it to be done flawlessly… Oh my, this must be important then…"
"It´s two objectives… first, solve the issue from these Apex grunts. Second, gather more claymores to our ranks…"
"Ah, I hope they won´t be blinded by my flawless artistic beauty…"
Vega stopped from a snarky remark on that one, since quarrel with Vanity had never been worth it.
"I see that we have finally arrived at the outpost… please behave now…"
Vanity showed a frown of dislike as she began to wave with her sun feather once more.
"I will behave… as long as they keep those masks on."
The Vanguard pair had finally arrived at their destination.
The Apex outpost wasn´t that complex in its infrastructure of rock buildings and tents. The bandits' horses stood bound to poles and in groups of four to keep them in line. Several torches illuminated the campsite and stashes of weapons and armor reflected the faint light. Nearly all of the bandits in the camp wore the protective masks at all times, as the gut worm had a reputation to ambush its prey when it was on the ground.
No matter if it slept or not.
Vanity and Vega walked among the bandits who left them room as they passed by. Vanity still used her hand fan to obscure her face from the bandits, who turned their heads after her in return.
A hint of a pleased smile that could be seen in her eyes.
They passed by a couple of the horses who began to neigh and react nervously to their presence. Vega gave them a glance and then decided to ignore them.
Animals could always tell the true nature of the awakened by instinct alone. No matter if they assumed their human appearances, they could tell the difference by smell.
They arrived at what could be considered as the village´s town square, an open area where the villagers once chatted and bought their goods. None of that remained now as the only "merchandize" in the vicinity was the women stored within the stone buildings.
One of the masked bandits approached the pair with determined steps. Vega asked with her metallic and distorted voice.
"Are you the leader of this gang?"
The masked bandit, different from the others in that his mask had a distinctive red line in the center, replied haughty at them.
"Are you the Vanguard messengers?"
Vanity held back a despiteful comment as she muttered.
""Messengers"…Who do you think you´re talking to you?"
Vega interrupted any answer from her.
"In a way… yes."
The masked bandit replied then in a bow with his head.
"Good, my name is Gouda, and I represent my boss, chief Zara, in this matter…"
His hand moved up as to remove the mask but Vanity stopped him with a loud.
"Keep! That thing on… I don´t want to see what´s beneath it…"
Vanity´s dislike for men showed as she tensed her eyes on Gouda as a warning.
Vanity disliked men, no, she despised them and in her world, the ugliest thing there could be, would be a man. She loathed, despised and looked down on them with every single right to do so.
This had made her an exception amongst the Vanguards as she had to be teamed up with another woman. She couldn´t stand to have a man to accomplish her for the missions. She would rather kill him than to keep one of the opposite gender around her.
The only man that she didn´t consider to be ugly, would be her Lord.
Messire, "The Lord of the East".
In her mind, he wasn´t even a man but something far greater than that.
It had been the reason to why she had to be assigned to another woman like this.
Gouda let the mask stay on as he turned to Vega who made a request.
"We need your men for an ambush in a couple of weeks from now… you will be paid with the usual fee for a successful result and…"
Gouda raised a left hand to interrupt him.
"Not so fast… there´s something more important that we need to discuss first…"
He snapped with his fingers as to signal a bunch of the men to collect something.
They returned with three feeders, restrained with thick shackles and mouth gagged with iron, two males and one female, with compact golden eyes and maws filled with fangs. The males were former members of the Apex and had already caused severe damages to their own men. Their aggression could be noticed immediately as they tried to chew through their restraints to no avail.
The female, a young woman that appeared to be in her mid-twenties, and would have been sold as a "toy", acted differently. Instead of the aggressive behavior the men displayed, it just stood there like a sleepwalker. She was naked like a barren tree in the desert and acted like one for the moment. The only times she reacted at all were when one of the bandits poked her with a spear to keep her in line. She could be considered a wild animal that moved from one cage to the other.
Once Vanity saw her, she immediately covered her face with the hand fan while she shouted.
"Clothes! For the love of the Goddesses put some clothes on her!"
There was even a trace of embarrassment in her voice as she pulled out another hand fan from her sleeve. She used this so she could turn her head away from the feeder while obscured by the hand fan in front of her face.
Her cheeks had the same color as a half boiled lobster.
Vega chuckle a little as this happened every single time Vanity saw a woman naked.
Vanity on other hand quickly waved with one fan to cool down her face.
One of the bandits threw a coat over the female feeder so only the knees could be seen. It resembled a ghost without the holes for the eyes. Vega turned to Vanity.
"You can look now…"
A careful peek from Vanity and then she returned to her usual self once more. She still had traces of a blush over her cheeks as she waved with both her hand fans to cool down.
"Give me a warning next time!"
Vega ignored the comment as they now returned to their conversation with the Apex bandits.
"So what´s the problem?"
Gouda pointed at the male feeders and shouted with an accusation in his voice.
"Look what you so called "miracle" potion did to our men!"
Vanity replied this time with a tone of arrogance.
"Don´t try to blame your ugly mistakes on us… I recall that you got warned and advised to not use the Tears unless absolutely necessary. Four or five times in fact, so if you´re so stupid that you drink them at the first best occasion then it´s your problem…"
Gouda didn´t sound pleased as the mood in the outpost dropped down to hostile levels.
"You said it would give us power… you never mentioned that it would turn us into ghouls!"
Vega replied with defensive voice.
"To our defense, we Vanguards didn´t even know what would happen. And now we know, so I guess that in order to compensate you, we will have to confiscate the Vanguard Tears from you…"
Vega looked around as if to keep the bandits away by the relentless stare within her helmet.
It worked…
"… We realize know that providing weapons like these into the hands of your kind where a bad idea. So if you don´t mind then we will now confiscate this defective merchandise and have it destroyed…"
Gouda snapped with his fingers and several of the bandits rose up from their places. All armed.
"We don´t want you to confiscate them, we just want the antidote to it…"
"Antidote?"
"There must be an antidote right? Otherwise you wouldn´t provide us with these from the start. We figured that if we had that, we could still use the powers these tears provide us and earn a good profit as well…"
The worried twitches of several bandits got Vega´s attention as Gouda talked away.
"…So just hand over the antidote and we won´t charge you extra for the loss of our men."
Vega got something confirmed regarding the company once she slipped out from her perception.
"Most of you have already drunk them… haven´t you?"
Guilt spread across the bandits faces as several of them tried to restrain themselves. They could feel the hunger gnaw them from the inside out and their eyes began to glow faintly within their masks.
Gouda didn´t waste more time as he replied.
"Just give us the antidote… we don´t want to become ghouls like those people… So just hand it over and pay us the double if you want our services!"
Vanity began to chuckle in mockery over his words and even Vega raised her head up towards the sky in a laughter. Vega´s laugh drowned out Vanity´s as the vultures which until now circled around her joined into it.
Gouda appeared to get frustrated but also intimidated by the changed vocals Vega´s voice now assumed. A much brighter and crueler voice mixed with metal as she spoke.
"…"Just give us…" who do you think we are? Of course there´s an antidote, but since you people are so… Can you put words on them Vanity?"
Vanity took over here.
"…You aren´t a little bold to demand an antidote and double payment for your efforts? Don´t make me laugh! You are already overpaid for the few claymores that you manage to bring in to us alive. We also warned you multiple times but I guess all those ugly thoughts block your sense of logic. You made the mistakes, not us, and if you try to haggle and bargain your way out from this then I will show you how pretty your insides are on the outside…"
Vega assumed the conversation once more as she tilted her head towards Vanity.
"That´s enough… we don´t want to scare them off you know…"
Vanity stopped after she rolled with her eyes once. Vega talked away.
"Dispose of the feeders, if you don´t mind looking at them for a little longer…"
Vanity gave Vega a mean look as she approached the three feeders with dislike.
"Of course I will dispose of them! They´re ugly…"
She raised one of her hand fans and shouted with the other in front of her face.
"…so hideous and foul!"
Followed by a quick swipe down at the male feeder with her open hand fan that bisected the target´s skull. It fell down with a thud as she moved over to the next one and swiped with her hand fan horizontally this time. The male feeder fell dead down as thin red line encircled its head in the height of the nose bridge and the top off its skull slid off. Vanity then moved over to the female feeder and then just left it there.
She turned towards Vega.
"This one is all yours…"
Vega sighed as her eyes glowed red within her helmet. Vega turned her head up towards the sky and called a distorted bird cry.
The six vultures above her descended rapidly and towards the female feeder with their talons ready. They all ganged up on it and picked it into pieces as dark claws tore up the female head and strong beaks picked her skull open. They tore up the mantle and her skin with ease as they all focused on her head. It only took a single minute and the female feeder got reduced into a pile of bleeding bones as the vultures devoured her flesh and blood. Its head had been cracked open like an egg and the vultures hadn´t even left a single inch of her brain behind.
Vega called another cry as her birds ascended back up into the sky. One of them decided to land on her raised right arm with a piece of feeder flesh in its beak. The white plumage had gotten stained by blood put these birds knew how to keep it clean, they just needed some time to do so…
The other bandits remained in frightened shock over the performance as both Vanity and Vega provided an intimidating look at them.
Vega spoke.
"That´s… one of the cures for this condition. So you people will either get in line for a quick death or do as we say, or we will simply execute each and every single one who has already consumed these tears to spare you the trouble. And you won´t get more paid or any antidote until we see some results... Are we clear?"
Gouda provided a look at the vulture on Vega´s arm to the bloodstained hand fan in Vanity´s hand.
A deep sigh hissed within his mask and he surrendered.
"Okay… we won´t complain as long that we get paid…"
Vega grinned within the darkness of her mask over this. Vanity also enjoyed how the situation turned out and quickly swiped with her bloody fan to wipe it clean of blood. Vega let the vulture fly off and then addressed them in a voice of authority…
"Excellent! Now round up half of your men and prepare for departure. We have an ambush to set up…"
The vultures circled in the sky above the outpost as the bandits prepared themselves.
Their targets… Claymores.
Grace and the others reached the edge of the desert and witnessed the lands of Mucha.
Beautiful valleys filled with a flora that could only be found within Mucha. One of these plants was called the Cherry blossoms that could be found in Mucha´s forests. They started as apple trees once with white flowers, but the large amount of bloodshed these lands had been watered with had changed the trees. They had absorbed blood over the centuries and developed a new pink color as a result. They bloomed the entire summer with elegant pink flowers with made them beautiful to look at. Despite the name, cherries wasn´t the fruit that grew on these trees, but apples, red apples that could come in the color of pink as well. With the temperate climate of Mucha, these trees could bear fruit for the rest of the year until the time came for them to bloom once again.
An export merchandize that made Mucha unique considered that the pink apples where worth far more then the red ones. That and the delicious Gut worm meat of course.
The middle lands of Mucha had quite a landscape, with magnificent open areas and flowers that filled the air with their faint fragrances.
These lands where the main reason to why humans traveled through the deserts in the first place. But to call the danger over just because they left it would be a foolish choice. Mucha still had several of poisonous predators within these paradise lands as well.
Along with the awakened being´s and the usual yoma of course…
Grace and the others just stood there as to savor the moment of satisfaction. They all stood with pleased face expressions to go with their moods in this glorious sunlight that broke through the blanket of clouds.
The journey had gone smoothly, much to Grace´s delight and to the others for that matter.
Gloria had actually turned out fine, she hadn´t gone into her "official" mood even once as they had traveled through the desert. She had also apologized to Victoria, just in case she had done something to her as well. Victoria had told her to not do so, since she felt that it should be her that made the apology instead. Gloria had looked a little confused over this, but she had apologized anyway.
It was unbelievably comfortable to have Gloria back, and after those two horrible weeks with Official everyone could agree on that.
Grace and Faith could spar with each other again and let out each other's frustrations. As usual, every sparring match ended in a draw with neither of them as the victor, but at least the happy atmosphere had returned to normal between them and the bright sunny southern sun added to the mood with its positive light.
Victoria just stared across the beautiful open plains as she felt the soft grass beneath her feet once more. She displayed a pleased expression as she never seen the lands of the south even once before this. She had heard stories from Vanessa, but never would have imagined that it would be this beautiful. A temptation to unfold her wings and fly up into one of the tree crowns and smell the flowers came to mind. She just wanted to fly between the trees and enjoy the surroundings like a child of nature.
The lands of Mucha were, after all, the brightest of them without anything to fear within it. Not like Lautrec where everybody feared a ambush of the Empress in the tropical nature. Not like Alphonse with its depressive darkness and the "king" as an ominous threat. Not like Staff and the Organization´s stronghold in the barren mountains that spread nothing but uneasiness over the entire area. And not like Toulouse where the majority of yoma reigned and fear ruled the citizens and where the clouds covered the sky.
Compare to the rest of the lands, Mucha was a sunny vacation resort with soft sand, sunlight and a brighter atmosphere. The effect to see the sun was most prominent as they felt happier to simply bathe in it.
But she had to stop herself as they wouldn´t have the time to have fun…
Faith in other hand concealed her disturbed concerns beneath a tired smile while her mind recalled her experience with the southern lands and the lurking dangers that crawled beneath its harmless scenery.
The Awakened Ones that resided within Mucha.
The Awakened, who lived in the lands of Mucha, had developed a certain specialty unique to the south.
The ability to produce toxins that were unique for each awakened.
The usage of poison could be considered useless since all awakened, warriors and yoma had a complete immunity to it. But these had developed to affect even them to a certain degree along with the intended prey.
The various methods to administer the poison only served one purpose, to mark a prey so others wouldn´t try to eat it.
The awakened lived in the middle parts of Mucha with only a few exceptions that had the desert as their permanent residence. They only went into the deserts to get food, and to enjoy a sand bath once in a while to shrug off hitchhiking insects from their bodies.
Warriors usually had a hard time to kill southern Awakened, mostly because of the creativity they possessed with the usage of their poison. Most of them mimicked the Gut worm´s technique and sprayed it into their faces to escape. It just blinded the warriors, but sufficient to say, the southern awakened usually sacrificed strength for speed for this reason.
They should be considered extremely dangerous when driven into a corner and without a way out.
They also were excellent information gathers as they needed to know about the competition in the area…
Grace looked around and turned to Faith…
"How much farther until we find it?"
Faith scanned the area with her yoki perception and could identify ten awakened beings and thirty yoma within a three mile radius.
The south hasn´t changed at all…
She could identify six of these awakened as double digits, with the last four as single digit awakened. Four of these double digits remained in human form with the other two in their awakened appearances. The single digits stayed in their human forms and I was highly likely that the yoma remained that way as well. The yoma gathered around the single digits like mosquitoes to a pond.
Servants of course…
It was extremely difficult finding a specific awakened among the others. It would be the same as to find a needle in a haystack.
Incredibly difficult…
She could trace any yoki auras that belonged to claymores, with the exception of Grace behind her.
"This will take a while… you could wait there for a moment…"
She prepared to head into the forest and Grace asked with some concern.
"Where are you going?"
Faith turned her head back towards Grace and smiled.
"I will just ask about some directions… I will be back soon."
Then she took off in the great speed that all awakened ones possessed.
Grace looked around and decided to have an apple while she waited for Faith to return.
Grace looked into the forest where Faith had disappeared mere seconds ago.
She trusted Faith enough to let her move around on her own without supervision. Faith could take care of herself and wouldn´t eat more people as long as they could find animal guts as a substitute for the urge.
Grace turned her head back to the others as she really didn´t have much choice but to wait for Faith.
Gloria had picked up a white flower from the ground and carefully took small breathes to try the fragrance. She hadn´t been in the south before this moment either and actually seemed to enjoy this as well. After a quick assurance that the flower would be harmless, she closed her eyes as to enjoy its unique smell.
A little smile could be noticed as she clearly enjoyed this.
She even unsheathed her claymore to use it as an improvised mirror, just like nearly all warriors for various purposes. No matter if it was to get rid of bloodstains, to fix their hair or to simply remember what their faces looked like, their claymores served more purpose than being a weapon.
Gloria couldn´t remember a single thing that had happened since Lautrec. She didn´t appear to be bothered with it as the others had told her how she tripped and they had to carry her.
An innocent little white lie of course, since neither of them wanted to remember Official.
Gloria had accepted this as the truth and even thanked them for it, but it also meant that she didn´t remember the mission that Apsley had provided for Grace…
Grace took a moment to think about it as it was her very first rescue mission.
Rescue Missions…
The Rescue missions where authorized by the Organization to confirm the status of warriors who went missing in action. If the warrior was of great importance to them, they would launch it immediately with four or five high ranking warriors to do the job. If it was a question about confirmation that the missing warrior had either died or awakened, they could send either a group of double digits along with a single digit or just a single warrior to investigate. No matter the outcome, the warrior that they were sent to save barely returned alive.
But sometimes it turned out to be a powerful awakened one who had performed a kidnapping.
The reasons could be endless and determined by the power and the gender of the awakened being. If it was a male, then they would have taken the warrior just to "play" with her until she broke.
Awakened beings didn´t have any problem with the appearance of the stigmata like humans had. Humans fled in droves when they saw it but the awakened didn´t have that problem, since they too had it once.
It wasn´t pleasant when the awakened was a male in that consideration.
If the awakened being was a female, then the number of reasons could be one of many.
None of them were good for that matter.
In fact, no information about the female´s motives were known to the other warriors, mostly because they spend the time to butcher the awakened or force it to flee before any questions had been answered.
Rescue missions stood high on the Organization's list of important work since they didn´t wanted to waste good warriors for nothing.
Faith went for the closest yoki aura and only expected to find trouble on her arrival.
She arrived by a meadow where she found the owner to said yoki aura, currently in the middle of a meal.
A female in the awakened form that resembled a hybrid between a wasp and a snake. Three pair of insect legs protruded from her back and the legs converted into a long reptilian tail that curled around trees in its surroundings. The female humanoid body had a pair of transparent insect wings that didn´t have flight capacities. They were used to spread poisonous spores with their rapid rhythm instead. The snake like body had the same stripes of a wasp, black with yellow stripes.
It noticed Faith.
"Leave me alone! It took me three dayssss to find thisss one so who ever you are… BACK OFF!"
She finished by a simple hiss.
Faith remained calm and asked with a smooth voice.
"Don´t let me bother, but if you could spare the time to hiss me off then you can answer a question as well…"
A look of suspicion from the Snake.
"You won´t take my prey?"
"I will leave it alone, I don´t even eat that kind any more…"
Reassured by her answer, the Snake asked with her back turned at her.
"What do you want?"
It had a voice of suspicion, justified since awakened ones had a tendency to snatch others´ food.
Faith spoke with a stoic face and straightforward voice.
"I have heard a rumor that there´s one of us in this area with a distinctive taste…"
"So? Don´t we all have that?"
"Not like this… this one likes claymores."
The Snake went silent over the last word and stopped in her meal. It could only be considered suspicious and Faith waited for the answer while she remained vigilant.
After a couple of minutes, the Snake responded with a simple determined…
"I know nothing about it…"
While she returned to her meal, Faith didn´t fall for that one as she slowly approached it from behind.
"Oh? Really?"
She began to turn one of her arms into semi-awakened form as a preparation.
The Snake replied.
"Yes, ssso leave me alone!"
There was annoyance in her voice, mixed with slight fear like she knew something she didn´t want to talk about. Faith didn´t even have to use her perception to tell that the yoki aura fluctuated like candlelight. Faith began to loosen up the knot that held her robe together as she began to walk on the Snake´s tail.
"I know that you´re lying now… so tell me the truth or face the consequences…"
The Snake stopped in her meal once more, and dropped it on the ground. Behind Faith, the tip of her flexible tail bent up and pointed towards her back. A long and really sharp stinger revealed itself as the tip of her tail retracted backwards. A thick liquid dripped from the tip of it and on drop hit the grass below.
It began to fume and wither.
Faith didn´t mind this, since she needed to stretch out her awakened body every once in a while.
Her eyes went gold as the Snake being now stood five seconds from an attack on her.
It wouldn´t take long to convince this one.
Victoria turned her head towards Faith´s yoki aura for a moment. It felt like she had assumed her awakened form once again against one of the double digits.
It only took two minutes until Faith´s yoki aura returned to normal and human form once more.
Victoria sighed as she sat down in the soft grass with her back against an apple tree. She should have enjoyed this scenery and welcomed the change from the deserts, but she still had a sense of guilt buried within her mood and which could be sensed behind her face.
She still felt guilty over what she did to Gloria.
After the conversation with Grace that night, she had tried to get over it, but she still couldn´t. The scenery below her had done little as a mood breaker either as there only been an ocean of sand down below to watch, but the sensation of wind below her wings had made a little difference as she managed to convince herself.
She would somehow make up for the misery she put on Gloria. She didn´t know how or when, only that she wouldn´t stop until she had done it.
A set of footsteps approached her and she didn´t really have to look up to know who it was.
"Excuse me… but are you okay?"
She looked up by the sound of this careful and cautious voice that barely managed to reach her ears.
Gloria stood carefully bent forward with a really careful expression, like she didn´t want to insult Victoria or something similar. She had sheathed her sword as she needed both of her hands to hold the rather huge bouquet of flowers she plucked. All kinds of various flowers, wild roses, daisies, dandelions, cherry flowers, orchids etc could be found in this. A blended rainbow of violet, green, blue, yellow, white, red and crimson that been wrapped up with a vine of poison ivy.
Victoria looked up at her and hid the guilt with a unconcerned voice.
"Yes, thank you for asking… I´m fine…"
She made a smile that wasn´t more than a mask to hide her true emotions; she didn´t want to spread her guilt around like a cold to others. To even look upon Gloria´s insecure and cautious face made her feel bad within her heart.
Gloria tilted her head in a slightly concerned matter and then eased up in ignorance.
"Oh…okay then…"
She seemed uncertain of how to proceed from here, and slowly moved her hands together around the bouquet. She looked around as she searched for some sort of guidance from someone as she tried to figure out what to do now. Her hands began to strangle the bouquet as she began to squirm with her hands nervously around it.
She looked down at Victoria…
"Sorry… but… can I sit down?"
Victoria really just wanted to be alone with her thoughts as she felt she didn´t even deserve to even be in Gloria´s vicinity after what she did, but that maybe would hurt Gloria´s feelings if she sent her away, and she must have walked up to her for a reason.
"You can sit down…"
Gloria seemed a little relieved as the stranglehold around her flowers eased up a little bit, in the nick of time as well, since they would have snapped if she just used a little more force on them. She sat down next to Victoria with her back against the tree as comfort.
They sat like that for a while as Gloria returned to her flowers with some interest. Victoria felt a little bad with herself as she still tried to figure out a way to make things right between them.
She wondered if Gloria even knew about Victoria´s status as an awakened being. Her sensory control had been used for the purpose to hide this fact at the very beginning and it could be considered a possibility that Gloria didn´t remember any of it. Not the Sensory control, nothing about how she had acted and perhaps not even the fact that Victoria was an awakened being.
This made things difficult for Victoria as she still had these feelings of guilt, guilt over that she still could remember what she had done.
Unknown to Victoria, Gloria constantly shifted her attention between her flowers and her, while she pointed at each and every flower each time she did so.
Gloria asked carefully with great uncertainty, as she always did.
"Sorry… but… is there a flower that you prefer more than the others?"
Victoria frowned her eyebrows just a little and she turned to Gloria with a puzzled look.
"I don´t know… do you have a favorite flower?"
Gloria looked into her flowers as she carefully spoke with Victoria with some barely decreased confidence.
"W-well… I like these blue orchids… because they make me so calm and peaceful… but I also like these yellow ring flowers to because they make me happy… but then again… I like these crimson red roses too… they make me feel all warm and happy as well… but then again...!"
Victoria could see a small smile build up in Gloria´s face as she spoke about these flowers with such enthusiasm. Apparently Gloria had an interest for flowers that she liked to share with others, at least when she actually mustered up the courage to talk so to speak.
Gloria kept the conversation in motion as she didn´t want to leave out a single flower. She didn´t want to insult the ones left unmentioned.
"…and then again..."
Victoria interrupted her with caution and a smile.
"So you like them all?"
Gloria just bowed her head forward to smell the flowers once more as an answer. She also asked.
"So…which one do you like?"
Her voice still sounded uncertain like she tried to avoid a potential insult.
Victoria took a moment to consider this before she replied.
"Well… I think… I don´t know… which one do you think I would like?"
Gloria actually seemed surprised over this as nobody had ever asked about her opinion in anything before. She also appeared to be a little lost in what to do next as she didn´t have anyone to ask about it.
"…uh… I think… I think…"
She took a moment to consider it for a minute or so. "I think… a four-winged clover would be sufficient to describe you."
Victoria got surprised over the choice and asked.
"Is that even a flower?"
"No… but don´t you think it looks like a flower?"
Victoria then laughed a little over it with a happier tone. Gloria didn´t understand why, but she soon joined in on it.
After a while she provided a look at Gloria and she asked.
"When was the last time you ate?"
"Uh… two days ago?"
Claymores could go for longer without food than humans could, but they still needed to eat.
Victoria looked up at the tree crown and could see crimson red apples growing above their heads. She got an idea that might entertain Gloria.
"Want an apple?"
Gloria looked a little a surprised and asked.
"I…think so?"
"Then hold out your hand right in front of you and look at it…"
Gloria did what she was told and Victoria altered her own body just a little bit as her dark eye markings appeared around her eyes once more.
Beneath her bangs in the forehead, the thin black proboscis shoot out and bended up towards the apples. Victoria traced a suitable apple with her eyes and the proboscis closed around one of the apples. She snapped its stem with it and the fruit fell right into Gloria´s open hand.
It hadn´t gone more than a couple of seconds.
Gloria seemed a little surprised with enthusiasm in her eyes as she felt lucky. She had never experienced how it felt like to have a fruit directly from the tree before.
Victoria retracted her appendage inside her head and turned into a complete human form once more.
Gloria turned her head at Victoria while she asked.
"Thank you…"
Then she took a bite from it.
Victoria began to feel a little better with herself, a moment of sunshine between the dark clouds in her consciousness.
It was a start for her personal redemption.
Grace smiled a pleased smile as she found Victoria´s brighter mood a welcomed edition. She needed to cheer up after all and get over with her blame.
She then turned towards the forests where Faith had run off to with her arms crossed in great patience.
How long can it possibly take to ask for directions?
"Now, I will ask you one more time…"
Faith spoke with a calm but also serious tone as she pulled her robe back one and tied her knot together. She didn´t have so much as a scratch on her. The same couldn´t be applied to the Snake however.
The Snake had been beaten until the point that she had to reassume her human form, all to not fall into pieces of course and heal from the damages she acquired from Faith. She panted heavily while she covered her body with her arms, as to close the huge X-shaped wound in her chest.
It had been a really fast couple of minutes for this interrogation.
Faith, now dressed in her usual robe, turned to her.
"Where´s the one who likes Claymores?"
The Snake asked in return.
"Will you leave me alone if I ansssswer?"
Faith considered it with some thought.
"Maybe… it depends on whatever I like the answer or not…"
The Snake hissed with her human lips and answered with great dislike and a vocal tic.
"I don´t know…who… it issss… but I do know that you won´t find her here…"
"Then tell me… what do you know about her?"
"Sssshe´s one that we all avoid with the sssame caution as a claymore… Sssshe only comessss through here to enter the desertsss. If we don´t sssssstay out of her way, then sssssshe might eat the poor foolsssss who getssss in her line of sssight… Ssshe´s a hungry one... I sssaw her carry a claymore on her sssshoulder a couple of weekssss ago…"
"Where does she live?"
The Snake pointed further south and added to her statement…
"Jusssst head ssssouth. Walk until you ssssee two hillssssss that are side by ssside. There´ssss an entrance in the valley below with a great lake. You can´t missss it…"
Faith wasn´t pleased with this answer as it lacked important details. She asked again.
"That´s it?"
The Snake just raised a hand from the grave injury and spoke in slight pain.
"If I knew more, then I would have told you already. We are not that sssssstupid to enter right into the witch´s maw… find out the details by your own regard."
Faith knew she wouldn´t get more answers from this one and true to her word, she left it in peace.
Faith also went through the mental image in her head while she pinpointed the exact location…
South… two hills and a valley with a lake… must be Alvenheim or as the humans called it…"The Valley of the Dead Elves"
She decided to return to the others as Grace told her to not waste time for this mission. She really wanted to continue her quest to the North as soon as possible.
Faith didn´t complain as she actually began to entertain the thought having Eliah back in the group. Nothing would even dare to touch them after that.
She left the Snake to heal as she quickly headed towards the location of Gloria´s yoki.
It really worked as a beacon after all.
She also wondered what they should do once they got there, since it had an infamous and unpleasant reputation.
It took four hours to reach their destination with the high speed of hybrids. They had all stopped as they stood in front of the valley entrance that had two large hills by its sides.
They took a moment to stop as most of them could feel something odd with the valley in front of them.
Alvenheim…
A well hidden valley in the deep lands of Mucha. A place hidden from the outside world and close to impossible to find to both warrior and human alike. Rows of mountains rose as a protective wall from the outside world that rendered it into a sanctuary of solitude.
Warriors knew about this area but never approached it since the horrible incident that occurred here long ago…
Roughly four hundred fifty years ago, a group of ten warriors pursued a fugitive single digit into this valley. All of them had the small side mutation of pointy ears that made them resemble elves. The fugitive in question was called Tanya "the Terrible", solely for her ability to butcher her challengers when they where the weakest. The details about her fugitive status had gotten lost in history, but these ten warriors had once entered this valley in their chase to purge Tanya who took refuge there.
Thunder from a stormy sky could be heard over Mucha that day.
Nobody saw them ever again.
Sometime after this, the ten warriors claymores where found outside the entrance to this valley along with their armors. Some of them had bite marks all over them. All this had been piled up along with Tanya´s decapitated awakened head at the top as a warning.
The Organization only sent in one team of four warriors to investigate, but they returned with no new information. There were no bodies or even bones with the sole exception of Tanya´s severed head.
Since then, the location of this place would always have the atmosphere of a dreadful aura. It could be described as a forgotten cemetery with its tombstones long gone overgrown and its inhabitants forgotten since ancient times.
Until now…
There was an aura of something dreadful that waited within the valley, a trace of something immense.
Faith could feel it, Gloria definitely felt it as she paled and Victoria could feel a cold chill slither down her spine.
Grace, on other hand, remained unaffected by it.
"So this is the place?" Grace asked.
Faith nodded her head as she didn't like the sensation of this place. It felt like they stood in front of a dragon´s lair.
With the fauna of unique awakened beings that ran around, this could very well be a true fairy tale that they were about to encounter.
Gloria moved a little closer to the others as she didn´t want to be alone in this eerie atmosphere. It felt like this something that resided within this valley would jump out at them at any moment now. They didn´t feel any yoki auras from within the Valley, but the powerful awakened could mask theirs to much lower levels.
Victoria didn´t want to fly over this place. The image of a huge reptilian creature with a long sticky tongue came to mind that could snatch her out from the sky if she wasn´t cautious. She didn´t want to end like dinner for something like that.
Grace walked over to Faith and stood by her right side as she talked in a normal tone to her.
"Can you see anything at all? Is the warrior there?"
Faith scanned the area, but it wasn´t enough to get a clear picture of the valley. She didn´t like valleys at all.
They reminded her of Medea´s hunting ground, a little too much.
She turned to Grace while she kept her eyes at the valley walls in suspense.
"Nothing… but she could be deeper in…"
Grace didn´t even waste a second as she turned to the Valley entrance, looked at it for five seconds and then said in a causal voice.
"I´m going in."
She took three steps forward and Faith put her hand on her shoulder immediately with great force.
"And…where do you think you´re doing!"
She stopped Grace immediately and she answered.
"I´m going in to get her… as simple as that."
Faith just replied to this as she quickly shook her head to deny her suggestion.
"Oh, no, no, no you don´t! I don´t mind your enthusiasm and engagement in this, but this is serious… You can´t just walk right in and pick this one up like a bag of potatoes and leave you know?"
"Why not?"
Faith actually wondered if Grace actually asked that out loud. It sounded so stupid.
"First of all… the remaining traces of yoki in this entrance indicate that this awakened was a Top Five. Second of all, you can´t just expect that all awakened will listen to reason just because you have met one, two…maybe twenty, who didn´t acted like animals. Third and most important of all reasons, you don´t have a single way to find the warrior in that valley with that sense of location that you possess…"
Grace got a little angry over her remarks and countered them with her own.
"Okay, then I has a couple of questions as well… One, how in the world do you know that it´s a Top Five? Two, How can you be so sure that this one will behave like an animal and three… My sense of direction has nothing to do with this! So leave it alone!"
Faith sighed as she could tell how impatient Grace acted in this moment, but it had been for a good reason as well, since she just wanted to get over with it without any more delays.
She answered her questions with a slightly tilted head and a hand on her shoulder.
"Claymore, I if anyone should know what a Top Five smells like. Back in my days I managed to hunt and slay four of these; two I finished off by myself. Believe me, I´m not mistaken on this one… and two; you have no idea how isolation for longer periods of time can affect an awakened mind, Claymore… so I would be very careful if I were you…"
Grace still waited for the last answer and Faith put her other hand with the knuckles against her hip.
"…and face it, you managed to get lost despite the fact that you were given accurate directions. And don´t try to blame the dark, because we all have nocturnal vision here."
Grace opened her mouth to protest but then noticed the other two agree with Faith. In their own way as they both looked bothered and tried to avoid the subject with her.
Grace sighed as she instead changed the topic away.
"So why shouldn´t I just get in there and get her myself?"
"Because… you would immediately sacrifice your biggest advantage in this kind of mission. Your, as good as nonexistent, yoki aura…"
Not a word was shared between them as this was a sensitive subject for Grace.
Grace refused to believe that she would be somehow different from other warriors. Sure she liked to be unique like other warriors but for a warrior to not have a yoki aura, the mere thought was absurd. It would be just the same as a shadow without an owner to throw it across a lit room.
From the day that she had met Blanc, she had wanted to be a warrior like him, but she never expected to be this different. She simply refused to believe it until she got proof of the opposite.
Grace sighed in slight frustration as she crossed the arms over her chest. She looked directly towards Faith this time.
"I guess that you have a better idea then?"
Faith knew exactly how to solve this mission, since she had learned her lesson when it came to Grace and plans.
These two elements only would result in chaos when mixed together.
So she tried to keep it simple this time to see what would happen.
"Yes, you will sneak in and find the missing claymore while we will wait for you here."
Grace had just one objection with this plan.
"You´re not coming with me?"
Faith shook her head.
"If anyone of us would come along, then your cover would be blown just like that…"
She snapped with her fingers to demonstrate before she went on with the explanation. "…if I went along, then you would get in trouble and only hinder the rescue. And we would rather keep Glory here so she…"
Faith leaned forward so she could whisper directly into Grace´s ear so Gloria wouldn´t hear her.
"…won´t "you know what". We don´t need to put more stress on her now…"
Grace had nothing to say to counter this argument. Gloria was scared as it was already over this creepy place and didn´t need her memory swiped clean in another Official episode.
She sighed.
"Okay then… but are you certain that you will be fine out here? I mean… what if this awakened comes out from the valley?"
"She´s not in there, I can tell that… and she´s not in the vicinity either… so as long as you hurry on without that much noise then it should be a piece of guts…"
Grace raised one eyebrow in unpleasant surprise as Faith covered her mouth in a hurry. She then muttered. "Sorry… just a little piece of Awakened humor slipped out…"
"Well, as long it´s just that then it should be fine… but are you certain that you will be okay?"
Faith seemed a little insulted and feigned some anger.
"Claymore… who do you think we are? We have all kinds of abilities to hold this place for at least a half an hour or so… I mean, Victory has her mind tricks, Glory has her…uh…nevermind! And then we have me! The awakened hunt veteran with twenty-one confirmed kills within the records and nigh immortal regeneration abilities. Or I think they are neigh immortal…"
Grace just smiled at her as she interrupted this.
"Okay, okay… I get it… So what are you going to do if she shows up?"
"Hopefully you will be back by then… otherwise we will hold this line."
The other two nodded as they agreed on that statement. Grace still seemed a little reluctant to do so.
"Okay… I promise to hurry back and hopefully we will be gone before the awakened returns here…"
She spoke to them all.
"Please… be careful."
Faith remarked.
"And that comes from you…"
Grace didn´t knew what Faith talked about and Faith didn´t provide any answer on that clever comment either. She turned towards the entrance and then vanished into Alvenheim in a human speed.
Five seconds and she managed to get out of sight for them.
Gloria spoke now with a weak voice.
"Please hurry back… it´s a little spooky here…"
They then stood guard as they said they would.
The first thing Grace noticed was that Alvenheim wasn´t such a bad place after all.
The spooky and eerie atmosphere at the entrance had vanished once she got a hundred meters into the valley. It had from there gotten replaced with more beautiful scenery instead with wonderful forests with trees that had to be over five hundred years old. There were majestic oaks that where just as thick as wagon wheels and tall like plenty of awakened beings were in height. An apparently shallow lake rested in the middle of the valley with the sunshine reflected in the surface like a huge mirror from her perspective. It didn´t appear to be that deep, as she could see the bottom at it from a great distance. She walked in these mighty forests as she tried to find any sign of the captured warrior.
Okay… I don´t have the perception to rely on… maybe I should call her name?
She nearly did just that as well before she immediately stopped herself.
Wait! That´s just stupid… I would blow my cover immediately. And besides, I don´t know her name…
She stopped for a moment as another brilliant idea reached her thoughts.
Maybe… if I can find the spot where the awakened one sleeps then I might find her nearby. It could work…
She looked around and could only see tree trunks as far her eyes could see.
I should get higher up… that way I won´t get blocked like this…
She picked one of the tallest oaks and found one with impressive hundred meters in height. Its branches would, without any doubt, allow her to leap from them. Grace immediately leapt up in the tree and skipped branches as she ascended higher and higher until she reached the very top.
Two miles from this valley, a single woman walked the rough paths with ease as she had returned from her trip to the desert.
She spoke out in the air as she tilted her head slightly to the left.
"…you have no right to complain, so just shut up…"
She nicked her head one time as she listened to the complete silence around her.
"… Hey! I know it was a corpse but it doesn´t matter when I´m hungry…"
She shut up again as she got interrupted by something and then sighed in frustration.
"… Just shut up."
She then turned her head forward and headed towards Alvenheim…
Back to her home…
Grace stood up in the top of this oak and a strong breeze met her face. As she stood there, her silver colored cape got caught in it and flapped a little like a flag. She could see the entire valley from up there and wasn´t bothered by this wind for a single bit. She had clearly not thought it through as she now was just as exposed like an undisguised yoma in a crowd.
If the awakened being that lived here looked up then it would be over.
Grace didn´t think much about it as she noticed something far in the distance…
A small and really old cabin.
She was surprised over that someone had built one in such a remote and isolated location, but it could also be seen as suspicious as well.
She headed down along the tree and set her course straight for it.
Faith and the others stood with their backs turned toward the forests behind them. Faith muttered something as they could see Grace climb back down.
"Claymore, you better make sure that nobody saw that…"
Gloria didn´t say anything as she didn´t want to speak in such an eerie place like this. She would rather hide behind Victoria´s back instead, which she actually did now.
Victoria didn´t wanted to break this dreaded silence either as she looked around for potential ambush spots. Not to actually perform an ambush, but to put Gloria somewhere she wouldn´t be harmed. She didn´t want to bring more suffering than she already had to her.
Faith tried to determine what the number of this Top Five could be and if it was seasoned or not.
This piece of information would be invaluable to determine what kind of threat it would pose.
Seasoning…
As previously mentioned, all awakened where immortal until the day they were killed. That they also didn´t age beyond their twenties was also a widely known fact by the warriors. But what should also be known was that the flow of time still affected them, in the way that they only grew stronger and stronger until the day they got killed.
This process was called "Seasoning".
It was a process where the yoki within the body of an awakened being evolved over the decades. It slowly changed the initial form the awakened one had from the beginning of its existence, a growth of nature that carefully altered and optimized the yoki within the awakened body over the decades.
The Survival of the fittest.
But the term "seasoned" that warriors used could be considered misguided as all awakened constantly went through this. Even warriors went through this in their hybrid bodies as well, but they remained the same to their outer appearance.
What they referred to as "seasoned"… was an awakened being that had at least lived for a hundred years. It could be considered the point in time where the seasoning became clearly visible in the aura. This was also the only way to directly tell the age of and awakened being or a hybrid for that matter.
Each decade, the seasoning process altered the yoki aura to mark the process. It could be called an increase in the force that emitted from within the yoki and with a different intensity, like a new thin layer over the original one just as in an onion.
In order to determine the age, one had to trace down the source of the yoki through these layers, and then just count the number of layers that needed to be passed through to find it.
Like how one could tell the age of a tree by counting the tree-rings, the age of an awakened one could be revealed in a similar manner.
Seasoning also allowed assimilation of similar sources of yoki through digestion, but that only worked if the other yoki in question was a part of its own.
It also allowed the Awakened to adapt to their surroundings by consumption of animal life.
The fact that most awakened of Mucha were poisonous could be a proof of this. When they didn´t find any humans to eat, they had gone for the wildlife guts and after a half century, developed poison of their own.
Seasoning could turn double digit awakened into single digits, but that took somewhere around two hundred fifty years to do so. Single digits could become powerful as a Top five when five hundred years had passed. And Top five could become Abyssal one´s when roughly a thousand years had passed from the first time they awakened. But the existence of seasoned Abyssal ones indicated that evolution didn´t stop there and prepared them for the next step.
To have the possibility to become an Eternal One.
But that would take ten thousand years to achieve the required magnitudes of yoki to ascend into that state.
There were only three Eternal ones that had come to exist in this world. Two of them, "The One Horned" and "The Destroyer" were born as Eternals, but the third, "The Shadow", had achieved this the hard way.
…and after that, the seasoning just ceased to exist at all.
It had served its purpose as true immortality had been reached at that point.
Faith wondered what kind of woman that would voluntarily travel all those extra miles just to hide in a graveyard like this.
A chill crawled down her spin all of sudden and she could feel the others´ yoki auras freeze in fright.
The reason was a forth yoki aura that just emitted raw yoki that became at the close vicinity downright immense. It was not like the Empress which inflicted fear on a wide radius, but concentrated to a single point. This one was more subtle and unstable like a shark right below the water surface.
Faith thought in an increased panic now as she had managed to estimate the level of seasoning this one possessed.
No way… I thought that it was two or three hundred years… but not this!
The aura behind them spoke in slight confusion as the woman asked…
"Why are you outside my home?"
Faith just thought one more thing as she wondered if they even would have a chance against this one.
How is this possible!... Her aura… it´s over five hundred twenty years old! And it´s stronger then a…oh my god… don´t tell me she´s a…!
Faith swallowed in nervous fright as she didn´t wanted to imagine it.
…it is a one...
She slowly turned around to face this immense force of yoki and prayed quietly to herself that her regeneration skills would save her from a certain death.
It was a woman in her early twenties, twenty-one years to be precise. She was a blonde with naturally grey eyes as well and a slender average body.
Her face resembled a cat with pointy ears to empathize this. Her hair cut slightly short in a wavered pixie cut that revealed her pointy cat like ears.
She wore a ragged part of noble woman´s dress that only reached down to her knees and revealed her to be barefoot. It had been longer, but extensive use in the desert had worn it down to the point that it bared her knees.
She also wore a sleeveless vest that was tightly closed around her chest and down to the end of her breastbone. The vest had a brownish color. It also had three dark brown buttons made out of animal bone.
Her clothes bared her midriff.
She had also thrown a traveler´s cloak on the floor, one she used to remain in believable incognito.
There was an aura of great self-confidence over her like she stood at the top of the food chain or something similar. She also seemed to be the kind of person that wouldn´t budge in for anything.
A woman with a yoki aura so intense that she needed to hide in an area devoid of human life to not acquire unnecessary attention from them. A yoki aura that even when compressed, emitted such waves of yoki that nobody could mistake what kind of power she possessed. Someone that had to travel five miles to the desert to find any guts in the first place.
A woman that the Apex only knew as "The Kneeling Woman" and responsible for the raids on their outposts.
She had a power so immense that the rest of Muncha´s awakened population preferred to stay away from Alvenhiem at all costs because of it. A force that scared every single yoma within a five mile radius away from her location as well.
Someone that had no other choice but to live in isolation and gone desperate from it…
She provided a tilt with the head at the unexpected group outside her home.
Grace arrived at the small cabin and could only say that it was ancient.
Old wooden logs that barely held together as its walls and with bare openings for windows met her. The door was made of wood along with the roof. It seemed really old as well as it had several dark cracks over its surfaces.
She decided to enter in case the missing warrior was in there.
The insides weren´t much different from the outside.
She found a single bed with clean sheets, an old shelf with nothing on it for display except thick pieces of bark where warrior symbols had been engraved. There was one chair next to a table with a small handheld mirror and a hairbrush. She also noticed a wardrobe that she opened.
It contained several different dresses that were most likely stolen from caravans. Several of them were cloaks as well.
She closed the closet and sat down on the single chair with her back against the entrance.
This place was empty and without any signs that a warrior had been there at all.
I don´t get it… this must be the awakened one´s home. But if that´s true…then where´s the missing warrior?
She sat there to think this through and picked up the handheld mirror. She looked into the clear reflection of herself and asked.
"So what am I supposed to do now?"
Maybe I should just ask the Awakened one where she put her prisoners… and if she won´t listen to reason then she will have to listen to the blade.
She sat there and turned the mirror in her hand…
…and someone else got reflected in it.
Grace froze on the spot as she had been taken by complete surprise and the woman behind her asked.
"Who…or what… are you doing in my house…?"
Grace rose up from the chair and put the mirror down as she turned around slowly to take a good look on the one that lived here.
They stared at each other with some suspicion as they looked each other through.
The unknown woman talked over her shoulder like she addressed someone outside this house.
"Yes, I have already asked her that! And who let you talk by the way… shut up!"
She then turned to Grace again…
"So who are you?"
Grace seemed a little confused over this as she asked in return.
"I´ll say my name if you tell me yours…"
The woman opened her mouth to answer but suddenly turned her head to the left as she shouted at someone.
"She wasn´t talking to you Roxanne! Yes I´m pretty sure that she wasn´t so just shut up like the shitty number two you are…"
Grace began to wonder if everything was right in this one´s head. The woman turned towards her again.
"Sorry, she just doesn´t know when to shut up sometimes, I hope she didn´t bother you too much…"
Apparently she heard voices in her head as well.
This could get dangerous.
The woman turned her attention towards Grace now and spoke with a patient voice.
"I really hope that there´s an explanation to why I found two awakened ones with a claymore outside the entrance as they guarded it. I also hope that someone could explain to me why there´s a claymore here. One who now broke into my house for no reason at all and sits in my chair, making herself at home…"
She sighed and turned her head to the right again as she bickered with the apparent voice behind her.
"…Yes Roxanne, I was sarcastic so you don´t need to point it out… and I will ask about that part, so shut up and let me do it! Later…"
She turned her head back to Grace again. "…Well, I hope you can explain this, since I don´t like to have complete strangers in my house, especially those that have the guts to break in uninvited like this… But then again, you don´t have a yoki aura either… that leads to only one conclusion…"
She looked directly at Grace and remarked with a hint of insight.
"…You are just another ghost, aren´t you?"
Grace actually got surprised over that conclusion.
"First time someone called me that…wait…another?"
But then she had to realize that this woman must be insane.
The woman crossed her arms in impatient confidence as she waited for Grace to answer.
"If that´s the case, then why are you here? Has someone disturbed your grave marker or something?"
Grace moved her hand towards the handle of her blade in retaliation to what she believed this awakened one did to Faith and the others.
She responded with.
"I´m not dead! The Organization sent me…"
The Awakened one just frowned for a second…
…and before Grace even realized it, she found herself flying in the air, outside the cabin. She flew for a couple of seconds and landed in the lake with a loud…
SPLOOSH!
It had all gone so fast…
The awakened one had rushed forward, grabbed her by the neck and then threw her out in an instant.
Much to her surprise…
Grace crawled up on the shore to the lake and could hear fast footsteps approach her. She grabbed the handle to her sword and stood up as she was soaked in water.
The Awakened woman had reached her with a dead serious stare. Apparently she disliked the Organization for obvious reasons. She seemed unarmed and spoke with a voice of tranquil seriousness…
"And why have they sent a ghost here? Answer me at once or face the consequences…"
Grace didn´t knew what that meant but it sounded like something really horrible. She unsheathed her sword as she wouldn´t give in.
"I´m here… because I´m on a mission… to save someone."
The woman replied to this.
"Who? There´s nobody here but you, me…"
She turned her face in despise as she pointed over her right shoulder.
"…and…that number two over there."
Grace couldn´t see anything.
Obviously, this awakened one had either gone mad from this place or just the isolation that chipped on its sanity. Either way, she should be considered really dangerous.
…but there´s nothing wrong with her confidence though.
Grace knew now that something terrible must have happened to Faith and the others. This assumption spurred her to fight this awakened, to make certain that her friends were unharmed.
The awakened one crossed her arms over her chest and seemed to have accepted the challenge.
"I see that you are quite defiant… or suicidal… So what are you going to do now? You…"
She turned her head to the right as she listened to something.
She appeared insulted.
"I´m not going to call her that! Go back to the sideline and don´t dare come back here unless I order you to do so!"
She turned her head slightly at Grace before she turned it back once more.
"And stop doing that! It´s annoying!"
She turned her attention towards Grace once more.
"And now when we have some time alone, what are you going to do?"
Grace answered with her own confidence.
"Whatever that feels right!"
The awakened one just raised an eyebrow in surprise and had to ask.
"What kind of strategy is that?"
"A good one… I want to ask you a couple of things by the way, but I also need to make sure the others are unharmed as well… so can you move out of the way?"
"Can´t do that… you would just run away and tell the Organization… and I don´t want to ever get involved with those people again… or need another voice in my vicinity that tries to tell me what to do…"
Grace would have been concerned about that but the well being of her friends came first. She remarked.
"Fine for me… I´ll just wrap things up quickly then…"
"We will see about that… ghost."
The awakened one didn´t budge at all as she slowly moved her arms downwards. Neither of them seemed to back down.
The woman asked in a stoic voice.
"You asked me before about my name in return for yours, right?"
A short reply in return.
"Yes…"
The woman nodded her head as she replied in the respect for her sense of honor. The atmosphere around them felt like the one before a thunderstorm, like their frustrations could trigger a lightning strike between them. The woman thought that this warrior must be another restless spirit in this valley, one that wanted one final battle to acquire peace.
She decided to grant it its wish.
And in true sportsmanship spirit, she provided her own name in return.
"My name is Cassandra…"
They faced each other for a couple of seconds.
Cassandra tilted her head to the left and a loud cracking sound snapped from her neck.
Crack!
She seemed a little relieved over this as she now spoke with a dead serious tone and old habit…
"… And I am number one."
A very unsettling and a little vicious smile spread across her face as she clearly intended to enjoy this change in her daily life.
…Since it won´t do any harm to kill another ghost.
She said one more thing to Grace.
"…I hope you will rest in peace after this."
Grace replied with some anger...
"I´m not a ghost!"
...and then she attacked to prove her point.
(Author´s note: And I hope you liked her introduction.
It took a little time to get the introduction right and all...
Please review your opinions of this chapter...and what you think about the story so far...
Next chapter in progress...)
